Narnia Starts the New Year off on Top

January 4th, 2006

Narnia extended its lead on the international scene this weekend with $41.5 million on 6,584 screens in 31 markets for a total of $225.5 million. (Total included an estimated $12 million on Monday.) The film opened in second place in South Korea with $3.94 million on 262 screens over the weekend and $5.22 million overall. Meanwhile, in Taiwan the film earned $1.3 million on 60 and $1 million on 95 in Thailand. Its best market overall was France where the film earned $8.4 million during its second weekend of release while in the U.K. the film was up 5% for the weekend with $5.13 million on 526 screens for a total of $58.86 million.

While King Kong remained in second place over the New Year's weekend, but was down 20% to $29 million on 6713 screens in 49 markets for a $222.5 million international total. It showed serious strength in the U.K. climbing 39% to $4.59 million on 475 screens for a 3-week total of $36.14 million. The film is also doing impressive business in France, ($3.9 million on 776 screens); South Korea, ($2.9 million on 264); Germany, ($2 million on 767); Australia, ($1.6 million on 247); and Japan, ($1.4 million on 316). On a side note, many analysts were expecting the film to do much better business in Japan, after all, the Godzilla / King Kongcrossover was on of the most popular entries in that franchise. But so far the film has only pulled in $10.1 million, which isn't even enough to get in into the top 20 for the year.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is coasting on holdovers, but it still managed another powerful performance with $17 million on 7100 screens in 60 markets lifting its international total to $535 million, the best for the year. Worldwide, the film now has $812 million, the 14th best total All-Time. The next major milestone for the film is the worldwide 2005 crown, which is currently held by Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith at $848 million and that's a target that's well within reach.

Chicken Little is about halfway done its international run and has so far earned $91.4 million, including 7.5 million on 3688 screens in 38 markets this weekend. Its biggest market was Japan where the film added $3.4 million on 448 screens to its running total of $10.6 million. It also opened in Australia scoring an eighth place finish with $647,000 on 332 screens; that may seem really low, but the film only opened on Sunday.

Lastly there Cheaper By The Dozen 2, which has added some confusion on the charts. The film opened in the U.K. on Boxing Day, (Monday), and some sources are treating the midweek numbers as previews and lumping them in with the weekend for a total of $4.02 million on 332 screens, which would be enough for third place overall and the best per screen average in the top ten. However, others are only using the Friday to Sunday numbers where it made $1.48 million and finished in fourth place. The film also opened in Mexico with $1.5 million on 485 screens, which is a little weak for family films in that market. Meanwhile, the film was up 16% during its second weekend in Australia with $1.05 million on 223 screens over the weekend and $2.79 million overall while in Spain it grew by 5% to $886,000 on 305 screens for a total of $3.22 million so far. Add in a few smaller markets and the film made $5.5 million on 1,596 screens for an early international total of $12.3 million.